How to Use Content to Become a Thought Leader

How to Use Content to
Become a Thought
LeaderATTORNEY ACCOUNTANT COMMITTEE,
NASSAU COUNTY BAR ASSOCIATION
PRESENTED BY:
STEVEN WILSON

What is a Thought Leader?
• An individual or firm
that prospects
recognize as a
foremost authority in
select areas.
• The go to individual or
firm for said
experience.
- Forbes

What is a Thought Leader?
• A person or entity that
is recognized by peers
for having progressive
& innovative ideas.
-Wikipedia

Thought Leadership Facts
•Thought Leadership is about having
the answers to the questions on the
minds of your audience.
•Thought Leaders are a trusted
resource and in an information
industry are extremely valuable.

Thought Leadership Facts
•Thought Leaders have an enormous
competitive edge.
•Prospects preferThought Leaders,
regardless of price.

What Is Content Marketing?
•Creating, curating and sharing to
engage customers and prospects.
•Use metrics to measure awareness,
lead gen and customer acquisition.
•Make content easy to be found & draw
customers to your web site.

What is Content Marketing?
•Content Marketing
is providing value to
receive value.
-Wikipedia

What is Content Marketing?
•Create a Call to
Action (CTA) on
your Home Page
that leads to a
Landing Page that
offers a lead
generation offer.

Why Content Marketing?
•“Circulation” is as
wide as the
Internet, notTV or
radio ratings or
print rate base.
•Much lower cost,
much lower risk
•“Pull” vs. “Push”
strategy.

How Do We Amplify Our Content?
• Offer a Novel Point of
View (NPOV).
• LexisNexis and Google
Trends for high quality
news articles and
trending keywords.

The Connection
•Thought Leaders createTrust openly and
freely with valuable content.
•Prospects might be attracted to your NPOV
but will relate to it only if they trust you

The Connection
•Thought Leadership & Content Marketing
results do not happen overnight.
•Design strategy to nurture and build trust.
•Promote a NPOV as an idea in a way that
your competitors cannot duplicate.

A Study in Thought Leadership
•Tax accounting firm wants to be aThought
Leader.
•New law that will have a dramatic effect on
how to address depreciation of certain
corporate assets.

•To be aThought Leader the firm needs to do
more than regurgitate the law.
•Need to dig into the law and determine how
the law will impact companies.
•Must develop distinctive insights and a plan
attached to the analysis that proves to be
beneficial.

A Study in Content Marketing
•In 2001 River Pool and Spa (RPS) was a $4
million / year company inVirginia.
•They spent $400,000 / year on traditional
(outbound) marketing, mostly in radio &
cableTV.
•In 2007 – 2009 they added PPC (Google
Adwords) with mixed results.

•In 2010 Mike Sheridan, the RPS owner saw
the cost of keywords rise dramatically.
•Mike realized he spent lots of hours sharing
information on a one-to-one basis – and not
selling.
•In 2011, Mike Sheridan decided to share his
information online and make it easy to find.

•The initial objective was to educate large
groups and achieve one – to – many selling.
•Mike Sheridan put his faith in the fact that
prospects trust sources where they find the
most credible answers.

•Mike knew that people use Search Engines
to get information.
•That web sites on the First page of Search
Results are perceived as more credible.
•Mike felt he could leverage information and
SEO to draw prospects to the RPS web site.

•Blog with valuable content worth sharing on
swimming pools and maintenance.
•To rank high on search engines he regularly
added new and insightful content.
•For 18 months he blogged at a consistent 2x
/ week pace and his search engine visibility
grew.

• Mike’s focus on keywords and long tail keywords
contributed to his success.
• He compiled the questions from clients and turned
them into blog post headlines, which resonated
with customers.
• Mike learned that long tail keywords, although they
were lower volume, were highly qualified.
• Mike created diverse content, sometimes on pool
pricing, other times on pool installation.

•Mike’s use of openly sharing information
helped strenghten RPS’s credibility.
•The turning point was RPS’s NPOV on pool
pricing.
•It went against industry policy.

• Mike’s “Fiberglass Pool Prices, How much was my
pool really going to cost?”
• Blog received 20,359 PageViews and 84
Inbound Links – the highest numbers in his
history.
• Mike’s ultimate goal of blogging was to draw leads
and close deals. So, he added a Call to Action (CTA)
to his Blog.

• Instead of a CTA on the bottom of his Blog
(standard) he put a general message and links to
diverse sources at the top of the blog which no one
could miss.
i.e., “free pool industry news and information”.
• In addition, a search box in the center of his Blog to
make it easy for prospects to find links on his site.

•Mike used Link building to strengthen the
Blog’s credibility and visibility on Google.
•He got Inbound Links – links to a blog from
authoritative third party sites.
•They also used external Inbound Links on his
Blog page to other web sites.

• Social Media to promote his Blog and updated the
RPS business Facebook page as frequently as it
updated it Blog.
• Mike also participated in online forums related to
swimming pools.
• He provided answers to inquiries and referred
people to the RPS Blog for additional resources.

• In 18 months the RPS blog grew from
50 views and 467 blog subscribers to:
45,000 blog page views and 400
views for each blog article.

•Oh yeah,
River Pools & Spa sales tripled
to:
$12 million / year.

•The River Pool and Spa Case Study is one
example of how Content Marketing can help
your firm become aThought Leader and in
the process help propel you in ways you
could never imagine.
•Mike Sheridan committed to a strategy,
similar to one you can adopt for your firm.

Steven Wilson
Steven@SMWMarketingNY.com
631-539-2084
www.SMWMarketingNY.com

How to Use Content to Become a Thought Leader

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